Montague, PEI – Take a deep breath. What’s in the car? The sweet aroma of home-baked desserts is in the holiday air. The trunk is full of handmade cookies, candles, chocolates, and cards. In each box of treats, assorted cookies of all shapes, colors, and designs are neatly stacked one on top of another. Every inner child’s dream! There are glazed Christmas trees showered with rainbow sprinkles, chocolate hearts blended with nuts, spirals dusted with red crystals, chocolate-checkered squares, and green tea circles. Packed with these mouth-watering Christmas treats are “Sun Pastries”, which are traditional Taiwanese flaky sweets with sugary filling. On each box, there are vibrant cards filled with friendly words of gratitude and well wishes.

The nuns are on a trip to visit some residents and friends in the neighborhood, spreading holiday joy and wishes. Going door-to-door, the nuns wait patiently to be greeted soon by warm smiles of neighbors and friendly remarks. “Happy Holidays!” say the nuns, earnestly presenting their neighbor with a box of treats. Many neighbors are pleasantly surprised, exclaiming, “Thank you! Isn’t that sweet? It means so much to me that you’ve come here today.” Suddenly, a neighbor disappears into her kitchen, returning quickly with a box of home-made cookies. Prince Edward Island is known for its hospitality and friendliness to all people.
One of the nuns remarked, “We heard from some people that it appeared as if we would never go out and meet our neighbors. That’s also why we wanted to take this opportunity and walk into their lives and show our sincerity. From this holiday visit, we learned quite a bit; we realized how important face-to-face interaction is to the Islanders. I mean, we’ve been shown a great deal of kindness from these Islanders and we want to finally give back. Our neighbors are such nice people!”

These nuns had wished to repay the Islanders with holiday treats as a token of gratitude for all the help they had received and, to their surprise, were gifted all sorts of holiday treats in return, like handmade Christmas wreaths, home-baked goodies, books, and cards. It seemed as though the nuns had only done a little, but the friendly Islanders welcomed them with open arms. The Islanders exemplified the spirit of PEI, sharing warmth and giving more than they received.